The first Dutch woman to earn a medical degree, Aletta H. Jacobs pioneered health care reforms and access to birth control for prostitutes and saleswomen. A leader in the international women's suffrage and peace movements, she joined Carrie Chapman Catt on a year-long round-the-world lecture tour. Jacobs recounts her remarkable experiences in a voice that is often witty, sometimes angry, and always indomitable.

"Finally, Aletta Jacobs's memoir of her pioneering life is available to English readers! For those of us who struggle to connect the continuum of personal freedom, the right to control our own bodies, social justice and international peace, the campaigns of this energetic and extraordinary European foremother, active over a century ago, are required reading." —Sandi E. Cooper, professor of history, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY